Absorbent articles having stretchable absorbent core are known in the art. Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a stretchable sheet-like absorbent core that has a conjugate sheet consisting of an elastic sheet 11 and a nonwoven fabric 12 bonded to the elastic sheet 11. The nonwoven fabric 12 of the conjugate sheet is joined to the elastic sheet 11 continuously in a first direction, but joined in a discontinuous manner in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction such that the nonwoven fabric 12 has some allowance with respect to the elastic sheet 11. Joining the sheets in this way forms channels extending in the first direction and parallel to one another. Rod-like absorbers 15 are respectively placed in those channels. Extending this sheet-like absorbent core stretches and flattens out the channels formed by the nonwoven fabric 12. The shapes of the channels thus deform depending on the stretch state of the sheet-like absorbent core, which causes variation in the distance between the nonwoven fabric 12 and each of the absorbers 15. This means that the absorbency of the sheet-like absorbent core varies depending on the degree of stretch thereof. That is, stretch of the sheet-like absorbent core due to a wearer's movement etc. causes variation in its absorbency.
Patent Document 2 discloses a resilient body including two thin layers 1 and 6, and material bodies 4 disposed between the two thin layers 1 and 6 according to a given pattern, at least one of the two layers being woven by elastic threads for providing stretchability. The two thin layers 1 and 6 are attached mutually spaced from one another in their stretched state. Similar to the sheet-like absorbent core disclosed in Patent Document 1, the material bodies 4 in the resilient body deform depending on the degree of stretch of the resilient body, which results in that stretch of the sheet-like absorbent core due to a wearer's movement etc. causes variation in its absorbency.
Aside from the techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, Patent Document 3 discloses an absorbent core of an absorbent article that consists of a laminate of a nonwoven fabric layer and a fibrous web layer. The laminate includes first network regions that are thin and have high density, and second network regions that are thick and have a lower density than the first network regions. The surface of the fibrous web layer is bulky and has projections and depressions. The first network regions are arranged in the form of bands intersecting one another, whereas the second network regions are provided as partitioned layers surrounded by the first network regions. This laminate absorbent core, however, has no stretchability, and thus will not easily conform to a wearer's movement, leading to poor adaptability to the body.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid Open JP-A-6-90977
Patent Document 2: International Publication WO 91/09581
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid Open JP-A-2003-103677